Celiac Socks

May is celiac awareness month. Our household is very aware of celiac, thank you very much, but I do like to do my part to spread awareness. Normally celiac awareness month uses a green ribbon. I, however, use green socks.

Dan gets these puppies (he was the only one with green yarn in my stash so he won) so he can celebrate his celiac-adjacentness.

Boom. More Socks.

Never Again

After almost two and a half months, I have finally finished this pair of socks.

I cannot express accurately how much of an incredible pain they were to make. Dan encouraged me at least three times to just abandon them because they were so unfun. But I ultimately dug in my heels and eventually persevered. Thank you, pure stubbornness. So now I am done.

And I will never make this pattern again.

In more repeatable knitting news, I did make a pair of socks last month that I forgot to post.

A much easier pair of socks to make. I didn't want to set them on fire even once.

It's That Time of Year...

DFW FiberFest!

Dan and I went last weekend and yes, we got yarn.

 
 
  

We were much better behaved than in past years, which is good because there are no unused shelves in my yarn cabinet that my yarn can expand to anymore. I still have room, but really, I gotta knit faster!

By the way, the bottom row is Dan's part of the haul. I think he's as addicted to me knitting socks as I am!

That's Right

I made more socks!

I still have to work on my placemats (I have two done and about a quarter done with the third) and my Flying Geese socks (which are stuck just before the heel). Maybe I can get some good work on those done before I have to have some easy knitting and wind up casting on for another pair of vanilla socks.

More Kniting

This year I've challenged myself to knit some actual sock patterns instead of making mostly plain socks. Which is why I have yet to make a vanilla pair of socks this year. Pair four is no exception.

My mom mentioned needing another pair of socks so she gets these, putting her in a tie with my aunt for the most socks made for people that don't actually live with me. (That required number? Two (and a pair of slippers). Yeah, most of the socks I make are MINE! A few are Dan's.)

Next up, I'm working on (shockingly) two projects at once.

 

On the left, a set of placemats. The in process one pictured is actually completed now and looks lovely. I'm almost half way through a second one but since I want to do six, I've got a ways to go. (Sadly, I've already figured out the time each placemat takes to make. Ten hours. Gah.)

With the inevitable length of that project, I decided to see if I couldn't throw some socks in there too, so a couple of days ago I started the project on the right, which are going to be Flying Geese socks. (As in the quilt pattern, not the animal.) Dude, it's hard. So hard. I think I have it figured out but only maybe. I'm pretty sure that this pattern is going to drive me straight into the arms of a plain stockinette socks. But hopefully they'll look really cool!

Next up (when I eventually finish these): busy purple socks and some obnoxious pants. Oh yeah.

One Day Late (But It Counts!)

It was slightly late (by a day) but Dan got his birthday socks!

Official Socks!

Surprise! I've made socks!

Okay, in no way is this an actual surprise to anyone that has had even marginal contact with me or my blog. But still, it's exciting! More socks!

The colorway of the yarn is called Like, Totally Rad. That amuses me more than it probably should. Less amusing was the difference in the beginning and end of the skein. One end had lots of pink and on the other, that pink was significantly less intense. I'm sure you can tell which sock came from which end. But oh well, whatcha gonna do? I'm still going to wear the heck out of them.

Once these were done, naturally I cast on for more socks. But this time I'm actually knitting for someone not me. That's right - it's time for Dan to get more socks!

I might even try to finish them in time to call them a birthday present.

I'm Still High From the Fumes

I finished my bunny slippers!

They've been mostly finished for a handful of days now, but I was waiting for the weekend so I could spray the bottom with Plasti-Dip. I managed to not get a picture of it, but the soles are bright pink.

Even with the Plasti-Dip soles, I am a little concerned with their longevity. They are just so soft and squishy! My felted slippers are about to hit two years old (next month) and between holes and patching, I think they are about done. Of course, they didn't have any type of added wear resistance to their soles, but still. I'm not easy on my slippers. So I'm not sure how long the bunnies will last. We shall see!

In other news, I forgot to share a few things I knit last year for other people.

 
 

So that brings my sock total to just 14 - much smaller than last year's 30 - but I also did three pairs of fingerless mittens, a pair of gloves, a pair of shorts, four sweaters, a shrug, nine donuts, and a handful of other random little things. All totaled, I ended up in the same ballpark yardage-wise as last year so I'm pleased.

Not sure what my knitting plans are this year. I might end up splitting my focus a bit because I want to learn to sew and how to make sauerkraut. In the mean time, I'm knitting some socks.

Almost 20 Years Later

I managed to finish my sweater just before ringing in the new year. And now it's all blocked and lovely and I've been wearing it today and I love it so much!

It's hard to believe, but this sweater is made from the yarn of my old school uniform the year I was in Japan. Almost twenty years later and I'm wearing it again - in a cuter incarnation - and that makes me so happy!

(Significantly less happy was the task of actually knitting the sweater. There were lots of weak spots in the yarn which resulted in a lot of ends to weave in (you can see some on the back of the sweater above). I had to redo the bottom a couple of times and there were lots of issues that popped up through the process. I thought a couple of times I would have to rip back and start all over, but everything end up okay in the end and the sweater is awesome! Yay!)

Texting Gloves

My recently completed gloves are all done and dry. It's very exciting!

And something even more exciting, I added in some conductive thread in the index fingertips and thumbs so that I can operate my phone with them. And it works! The thread is really hard to see, too, so the gloves look completely normal.

The two fingertips on the left have the thread sewn into them (using duplicate stitch) compared to the right-most fingertip, which has none. You can kind of see the difference - the thread is a dark gray - but it's pretty hard to spot. But it works beautifully and makes me want to make more gloves so I can use the conductive thread for them!

Quietly Knitting Hand Things

I ran into a bit of a problem with the sweater I'm currently working on. It was so bad, I was pretty much convinced that I would need to rip back and start over. But before I decided to take that drastic step, I figured I'd block it to see how bad it really was.

Of course, I get a bit twitchy if I don't have something to knit on, so while waiting for the sweater to dry, I started some hand-related things. (I suppose my previous flamingo mitts got me in the mood because normally I'm not a big hand-related knitter for whatever reason.) First I did some extendable fingerless mittens.

The top can fold down to keep fingers warm or fold back so I can do things like knit, which is awesome. Also awesome, they are made with cashmere. SO SOFT. They were a really simple project so (relatively) quick - only about 15 hours. But by the time I was done with them, I still wasn't ready to face my sweater problems. So I decided to make some gloves.

(Gidget was a great help, as you can see.) Those took considerably longer (fingers take forever man!) so about midway through I was ready to look at my sweater. (The gloves are now done but drying so expect to see those here sometime soon.)

Fortunately, blocking did lovely things to it! I do need to go back and redo the bottom hem - start the ribbing sooner and make it longer all while thinking tight knitting thoughts (as I don't have a smaller needle in the right length) - and then finish the rest of it, but I'm feeling much more positive about it. And I got some fingerless mitts and some gloves out of it! Successful knitting all around!

Theme: Neon

I'm still working on my Shokei Sweater reboot (I have another couple of inches on the body and then the sleeves to do) but it is yards and yards of gray yarn and sometimes I need a splash of color. Well, two splashes. Four? Whatever. Neon!

Unplanned Socks!

I had intended the next socks I made be for Dan. Well, I kind of got tempted into a test knit, so pair thirteen ended up for me.

I do so enjoy socks! Maybe my next pair will be for Dan (though there is another tempting test knit on the horizon, so maybe not).

I'm So Lazy

Several days ago I finished my 12th pair of socks for the year - and today I finally got around to taking pictures!

Yay! Twelve pair of socks this year and I'm so happy to hit that mark with such a cool pair of socks.

I realize that by this time last year I had knit about twice the number of socks, but this year I've been focusing on branching out a little into sweaters (and donuts) so I'm not too worried about seemingly being so behind. I actually think I'm on track to knit a bit more yardage-wise this year as compared to last. In fact, I just finished a long sleeve shrug today (it's blocking so no pictures) and I was planning on following that up with a sweater, but that plan got derailed when I signed up to test knit a pair of socks. So socks, then a sweater, then I've promised Dan some socks. And I still want to knit another donut and a pair of bunny slippers.... Yeah, fewer socks or not, I definitely haven't slowed down on the knitting front this year!

Yay socks!

I'm So Ridiculous

While Dan & I were on vacation last month, Emmett managed to break two of my tea mugs. (I have video evidence that proves it was him. I'm just not blaming him because he's the biggest troublemaker. Proof!) Specifically, the two I used almost every day. In a fit of ridiculousness, I went and designed myself a new yarn-related tea mug as a replacement.

I'm using it today and it is delightful! Appropriately enough, I am using it while I knit some socks!

Another (Really Big) Donut

Today's a Great Day to Sun Bake

Because They Are Awesome

No Longer Drugged

I've spent the last two weeks in a state of drug-induced mind fog due to the small pharmacy I took to treat some muscles in my back becoming stone.

I'm much better now.

During my more lucid spells, I knit things. A couple of which look delicious.

 

There were other things, but I don't really care about pictures when I'm on the good stuff.

I've also recently finished a pair of crazy bright socks. Pictures coming... eventually.